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[whitejunelilies]

Patty's Place.

It's been on her mind ever since Anne had returned from the "consitutional" through the park with the girls, and Charlie and Gilbert. Even now, sitting on a low wall in the graveyard across from her room, her mind is not on the here and now but rather trailing delightfully through dreams of tiny red brick cottages, laughter, and a sweet sense of home.

She can allow the daydreams this afternoon--there's all weekend to work and her mind is, as Phil put it earlier in the week: "simply crammed--I feel like a cupboard just waiting for someone to open the door so that everything can just fall out."

Comments

[kindred_spirit]

Gil never tires of watching Anne while she daydreams, so for the moment, he simply stands and waits for her to notice him, unhurried and unconcerned.

He's a patient man, after all.

[avonlea-girl.livejournal.com]

Her hands twist in her lap, and the great grey-green eyes are fixed on the few leaves clinging steadfastly to a graceful branch. A small wistful smile plays about her lips.

(You'll do just fine, Anne.)

But even the loveliest of daydreams must come to an end sooner or later, and she takes a deep breath as if waking from a sleep, looking around at the slanting golden sunlight. When she sees Gilbert standing there, hands in his pockets and smiling at her, the small smile grows wider, and very bright indeed.

[kindred_spirit]

"Hello, Anne," he says, leaving the rest of the greeting -- the private, personal one -- to his smile to convey.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

[avonlea-girl.livejournal.com]

"I was just thinking about that little house we saw the other day--do you remember it, Gil?" While speaking, she moves over to give him a place to sit, skirts whispering softly against the old stone.

"I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. I'm sure Patty's Place and I will have something to do with each other in the future."

[kindred_spirit]

Gil settles next to her, easily and comfortably.

"I remember it, yes," he says. "What sort of thing do you plan to have to do with it?"

[avonlea-girl.livejournal.com]

"Oh, Gil, you can't plan something like that. It'll simply happen one day, you'll see. We're connected now," she explains, as if it ought to be clear. A small breeze kicks up leaves at their feet playfully.

It's hard to believe she once though that sitting next to Gilbert Blythe was a fate worse than death.

[kindred_spirit]

"I've no doubt that will," he says.

And he doesn't. If Anne told him she was sure she would be named the Empress of Canada in the future, he would believe her.

"Shall we make any sorts of plans in the meantime?"

[avonlea-girl.livejournal.com]

"Aside from planning to pass our exams, you mean?" she asks gaily, and picks up a few leaves to admire their colour.

[kindred_spirit]

"Aside from that," he laughs. "Those plans are important, but hardly the sort of thing to waste this nice an afternoon on, Anne, don't you think?"

[avonlea-girl.livejournal.com]

"Oh yes," she agrees, blithely, and smiles up at him.

"It's certainly a day that would be wasted on maths, I think. But I thought you'd have plans already--you've been so busy."

It isn't a reprimand; Anne laughed as cheerfully as anyone when Gilbert walked around the campus in the "caliker apron" that was his initiation into the Lambs, and she's cheered on the football team at their matches.

[kindred_spirit]

"But I haven't any plans with you yet," he says, as if that explains everything.

Which, really, it does.

[avonlea-girl.livejournal.com]

"Then we ought to plan something," she decides, pleased and a little pink at the cheeks.

"I've just been sitting here, reading some of the old tombstones. It's very relaxing to get away from Miss Ada's cushions for a bit--Charlie Sloane will keep sitting on them and Miss Ada looks at me so reproachfully everytime she sees me. I've tried to explain that there isn't any way we could keep him from sitting on them, but I don't think she quite understands."

[kindred_spirit]

"We mustn't have you plagued by Miss Ada's cushions," says Gil. "Or the hopelessness of protecting them from Charlie Sloane.

"Shall we walk, Anne?"

[avonlea-girl.livejournal.com]

"Yes," she says, and stands to brush the leaves from her skirt. "It's such a nice day, and I don't suppose we'll have many fine ones left, will we? It's almost winter; you can feel it in the air."

Walking together, just like sitting together, they don't quite touch, but Gilbert keeps his pace even with Anne and her skirts sometimes brush the tops of his shoes.

"What will we plan?" she asks cheerfully, looking up into Gilbert's face. "An adventure? We could say we might look for heather, but that's already been found. And we're not in the A.V.I.S any longer, so we can't even plan something for them."

[kindred_spirit]

"I don't suppose Redmond needs any blue buildings on campus," says Gil, thoughtfully, trying to sound serious. But he can't help but smile at her.

"I think we shall have to plan an adventure. Something that will make us the envy of everyone we know."

[avonlea-girl.livejournal.com]

"It's a shame Paul Irving's rock people aren't real," Anne muses, "or we might have been able to sail with them into the sun."

[kindred_spirit]

"Perhaps," says Gil. "But that sounds like we'd have to leave the Island for longer than I'd like.

"Anyway, no one would believe us, Anne."

He steps around a stone in the path, moving just close enough to her that their hands brush in passing, before he steps back, and continues in his earlier path.